CcmSetup is exiting with return code 7(Client Agent Missing Actions)

So far I have dealt with numerous client agent installation issues. Some of them were simple and some of them were really tough to troubleshoot. I have always documented then under SCCM troubleshooting category. Thanks to log files that keep us helping every time. What log file to analyze when, comes with experience. Most of the time the SCCM client agent install fails due to issues local to client machine. In this post we will talk about client agent installation issue – CcmSetup is exiting with return code 7.

The user mentioned that SCCM agent is installing but not completely. The Configuration Manager client Actions tab showed only two cycles.

Machine Policy Retrieval & Evaluation Cycle.

User Policy Retrieval & Evaluation Cycle.

In one of my post, I covered in detail about Configuration Manager Client Actions. If you find only those two actions, you have to really dig the log files to see what’s happening. While it takes some time to see other action cycles, don’t panic if you initially see only those action cycles.

CcmSetup is exiting with return code 7

Checking the ccmsetup.log file revealed something important. At the end was the line CcmSetup is exiting with return code 7. I had not seen this return code 7 before. Also there is not much info about this on internet. However I found Jason had blogged about this issue. He also documented the SCCM client agent installation error codes. That was really helpful in understanding what the return code 7 meant.

Referring to the same post, return code 7 translates to reboot required. That was crazy to hear but why a reboot ?. In my opinion it could be a pending system reboot that was required. Or as Jason mentioned it could be .NET Framework installer that was requesting a reboot. Rebooting the client machine brought back all the missing action cycles. Finally the SCCM client agent was seen active in console.

I happen to see this error and we can install the client without rebooting the server. Just cleanup / delete all the files (if there any) in CCMSETUP folder, and we can keep logs folder for our reference. Then the client installation will be successful. this is what I have observed. Hope this helps others too..